Colorado Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog shows off the new Coors Light NHL Stadium Series jersey after a press conference about the upcoming Coors Light NHL Stadium Series at Coors Field on Sept. 21, 2015 in Denver. (Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post)

Former Red Wings forward Kris Draper, now a Detroit executive under GM Ken Holland, was terrific as a minority at Coors Field this morning. He’s going to bring out the big guns — Steve Yzerman, Sergei Fedorov, Paul Coffey and others — for the Feb. 26 Avalanche-Red Wings alumni game on the eve of the NHL Stadium Series game at The Keg. That story here.

Here’s where the hockey rink will be built at Coors Field:

Draper, of course, had his face rearranged by Claude Lemieux in a 1996 playoff game at the old McNichols Sports Arena. Lemieux, still good buddies with Joe Sakic and Patrick Roy, will probably play in February. Here’s that famous cheap-shot check against Draper:

I spoke to Avalanche owner Josh Kroenke about several things, including the Ryan O’Reilly trade to Buffalo. “I think everyone handled it as gentlemanly as possible,” Kroenke said. “Ryan’s camp obviously had their ideas. We had our ideas. Ultimately we weren’t able to make it all work in Colorado and we’ve all moved on. I think all parties are happy. In a situation like that, that’s all you want — you just want to try figure out a way to get through it and make everybody happy.”

Minnesota’s Matt Cooke, left, knees Colorado defenseman Tyson Barrie in the second period in Game 3 of the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul on Monday, April 21, 2014. (Ben Garvin, Pioneer Press)

I’m sure most of you, and myself included, have “Cooke Fatigue” right now, so let’s not waste many more calories over this. It’s over. We, in Colorado at least, don’t have to waste our time seeing Matt Cooke play anymore in these playoffs.

A couple things though:

The rule of thumb is that one suspended playoff game equals 1-3 regular-season games, so if you want to consider Cooke’s “real” suspension 14-21 games, and if that makes you feel better, you have some justification. It takes a higher standard to be suspended for playoff games. Remember, Claude Lemieux got only two games for that hit on Kris Draper in 1996.

Tough news for the many Ian Laperriere fans here today: Lappy is out indefinitely with post-concussion symptoms. I chatted some with Lappy today, and he’s understandably bummed, and just hoping the symptoms subside. He’ll visit a specialist in Pittsburgh tomorrow. Concussion stories are becoming all the more frequent around the league, as we well know here in Denver with the Peter Mueller situation. Marc Savard of the Bruins is dealing with recurring symptoms, too, and here’s a great story on his battle with that and depression, by longtime Boston Globe writer and one of my personal heroes, Kevin Paul “Moose” Dupont.

Just wanted to alert those hockey collectors out there of what I believe is a unique opportunity, starting tomorrow.
I’m auctioning off a signed copy of my Avs-Wings rivalry book “Blood Feud” on NHL.com, starting Wed., April 16 through the 30th.
But not just any signed copy. Many great players from the best rivalry in pro sports during its heyday signed the book, including: Peter Forsberg, Steve Yzerman, Joe Sakic, Nick Lidstrom, Alex Tanguay, Chris Drury, Brendan Shanahan, Milan Hejduk, Rob Blake, Darren McCarty, Kris Draper, Chris Osgood, Sergei Fedorov, Scotty Bowman, Marc Crawford, Bob Hartley, Larry Murphy, Mike Ramsey, Chris Simon, Martin Lapointe, Adam Foote, Dan Hinote, Ken Holland and many others.

The highest bidder will see his money donated to Hockey Fights Cancer. It’s for a good cause, and that’s a lot of Hall of Famers’ signatures in one place. So, raid the piggy bank. I have no idea how much interest this book will draw, so you might get it for a bargain. Or, it might take off in expense. We’ll see.

I have had this book in my possession for nearly two years now, and tried to get it signed by as many players from the rivalry as I could. My paths have not crossed with players such as Patrick Roy, Claude Lemieux, Mike Vernon and Mike Keane, however, so their signatures are not in it – yet. Maybe the winner can carry it forward and get them to sign it.

Brad Richardson, once one of the more promising members of the Avs organization, was sent down to Lake Erie again today for the third time this season – although once was for a conditioning reassignment.
There is nothing wrong physically with him now, which is why his demotion again is a major blow to his career.
Reading between the lines of what Joel Quenneville has said about Richardson, it’s clear he doesn’t think he’s physical or pesky enough right now in his NHL development. The league has gotten bigger and more physical since the first year after the lockout, and Richardson hasn’t kept up with the styles.
Guys like Cody McLeod and Cody McCormick have come in and taken his job with bigger, tougher play. Also, Tyler Arnason appears ready to play again, so a body had to be sacrificed to the Lake Erie gods.
Richardson will need to remake himself into a grinding, checking, irritating player, something in the mold of a Kris Draper. He was a big scorer in junior, but can’t try to play that kind of finesse style with the big boys anymore.

Greetings from a cradle of American retail development gone wild, the Bell Rd. area of Phoenix/Glendale. Just about every store/restaurant/fitness/hotel chain you could ever name is within a Tom Brady throw from where I write.
In town here for tomorrow’s New Year’s Eve matchup between YOUR Colorado Avalanche and Phoenix Coyotes at Jobing.com Arena. That venue name just gives you tingles, doesn’t it? Just like the Fabulous Forum or the Gahden (Boston, of course) or Churchill Downs, you just feel the power of history when you say you’re going to Jobing.com Arena.
Before I get to a few random hockey/Avalanche musings, I want to give fair warning to any fan out there who might want to bid soon on what I feel will be a very unique item of hockey memoribilia. And, yes, it gives me a joint opportunity to gratuitously plug my book “Blood Feud”, about the Avs-Red Wings rivalry. Read more…

DETROIT – Greetings blog fans. If you are actually reading this tonight, please, GET A LIFE.
No, glad you’re here. But, really, get a life.
I sit inside Joe Louis Arena here as I write, where the temperature inside the building is approximately 114 degrees. Or, it just seems like it. A very warm day here in Detroit, and this building ain’t exactly at the top of heap when it comes to in-house amenities such as, oh, air conditioning. Read more…

Terry Frei graduated from Wheat Ridge High School in the Denver area and has degrees in history and journalism from the University of Colorado-Boulder. He worked for the Rocky Mountain News while attending CU and joined the Post staff after graduation. He has also worked at the Oregonian in Portland, Ore., and The Sporting News. His seventh book, March 1939: Before the Madness, was issued in February 2014.

Chambers covers college and professional hockey for The Denver Post. He has written for the Post since 1994, after dumping his first 9-to-5 office job a couple years out of college. He primarily follows the University of Denver hockey team and helps cover the Avalanche.